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I held the broken pieces tight,
Afraid of what the empty space would bring,
Confusing the shadows for light,
And clinging to a bruised and brittle thing.
I prayed for eyes to truly see,
Then turned away when truth began to speak.
Making excuses, bargaining to be
The anchor for a bond already weak.
How easily the heart defends
The familiar ache of carrying what is gone,
Calling it love when someone bends
The spirit until quiet peace is torn.
Yet mercy worked beneath the grief.
The sudden silence wasn’t cold neglect;
It was a shelter, a swift relief,
A sacred wall the Father did erect.
Not every traveler along the way
Is meant to walk the path where grace resides;
Some doors are closed so we don’t stray,
Some hands unclasped to stem the rising tides.
So now I loosen every plea.
I yield the ache, the wondering, the strain
Trusting God, who rescues me
Who never creates a hollow space in vain.
© Deborah Seale 2026
I met her in the dark, her breath like stone,
A predator carved from some vast unknown.
Her gaze a weight, a grave of quiet fire,
Unchained from what the mortal soul could own.
There are no pacts where lions tread the dust,
Their truth is claw and silence, raw and just.
Yet still, I stand, a fool before the shrine,
My blood a whisper, offering ash and trust.
Each word she gives is fanged, with edges sharp,
Her laughter hums, a brutal, hollow harp.
The ache inside me folds beneath her grin,
As though her teeth could sever guilt and harp.
No common bond; no mortal tie can weave
This force of ruin clutching hearts to cleave.
Still, from her weight, I breathe an alien calm,
A portrait burned in charcoal, fierce to leave.
Her truth is art, the savage kind, unbound.
I wear its scars, a silent battleground.
No treaties hold, no hand can tame her core,
Yet in her chaos, I find something profound.
There are no pacts where men and lions meet,
Our truths collide, a thrum, a lethal beat.
In mirrored fangs, I howl my darkest self,
And let her teeth consume my soul, complete.
. for public domain
We throw our hearts away
in the full fury of anger,
of greed,
of grief,
in the full surrender
to the resplendant glory of the highest God,
in Ajuna's thousand suns,
in deepest sleep
in drunkeness,
with strong drugs,
all from which a heart may return.
We throw our hearts away
by not caring anymore
which is the worst,
for when the heart returns,
it finds no receptical
and departs leaving behind only a whisper of dust.
For the heart never dies.
Immortal it forever seeks
a will to live
a will that lives
through the worst that life imposes.
It clings to whoever or whatever
will endure its failings.
Silenus may have been right.
He lived, if for nothing else,
to throw at life his spite
of being thrown into it.
for life was not a blessing,
only a curse. which is something,
I suppose, to get us through the worst of it
where praises and hymns fail.
So curse life to the end,
if for nothing else,
as a witness who testifies
that the heart deserves better.
Potential is not a promise-
and that's all I've seen in you.
I've given every opportunity-
but you've never followed through.
(You once) treated me with kindness-
but I deserve much more.
I deserve a kind of love-
I've not experienced before.
See, I deserve consistency-
and I deserve the truth.
And I deserve my wishes-
(and all of) my dreams to come true.
I've come to learn from my mistakes-
that patience gets you nowhere.
Not when one's committed-
(to serve) themselves; although it's not fair.
(I) love you for many reasons-
and I'm not sure that will change.
But you've shown me by your choices-
you don't love me the same way.
Choices aren't mistakes-
see, they are conscious trains of thought.
You choose to make decisions-
that you know leave me distraught.
So, since you choose to hurt me-
instead of fixing what you've broken...
I choose to walk away-
my sense of worth has been awoken.
In the shadows of the night, I dare to dream,
to be your number one, Your love supreme.
However our reality is a different tale,
You hate me, and I’m left with a heart pierced with a nail
In your eyes, I’m just a name,
a person you want to burn in flames.
I’m the ghost that haunts ur space,
the one you wish you could erase.
In the shadows, I’ll forever stay,
loving you silently, day by day.
My heart beats for you, my soul feels the pain,
of loving someone who will never love me the same.
You’re the sun, I’m the moon,
two celestial bodies, forever out of tune.
But still I dream of you, of what could never be,
a love that’s doomed from the start, yet still it’s all I see.
I wish to be ur number one, ur guiding light
but you hate me and I’m left in endless night.
I’ll hold on to the hope, that one day you’ll see,
the love I have for u, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll love me.
The door that closed was heavy wood,
A sudden turn where promise stood.
You brought your work, your heart, your time,
And hoped to find a matching rhyme,
Only to watch the offer fall
Against an unexpected wall.
It stings to hear a simple "no"
When you were set and ready to go.
It leaves a quiet, hollow space,
A sudden pause in mid-erase,
Where questions linger in the mind
About the things you left behind.
Yet every NO is just a sign
That draws a cleaner, sharper line.
It turns your feet a different way
To find a better place to stay.
A closed path doesn't mean you stop—
It simply changes where you drop
even though it hurts alot
The seeds of what you'll build next time,
With stronger steps and higher climb.
Everything has a soul; maybe it’s true,
The walls have ears,
do objects have eyes too?
I look at them and they at me,
displaying wonders, they’ve seen of you.
Captured like a moment in time,
these things store a glimpse of you.
I touch the table and see your figure,
Scribbling into a paper with furrowed brows.
I lay on the bed and you smile so bright,
cuddling, kissing, discussing knows and hows.
I open the cupboard and there’s your face,
Unsure of what to wear tomorrow.
I close the windows and feel your hands,
That hold me oh so tightly, that’s where I belong.
I look into the mirror and you look back,
A vision forever etched in my mind.
I step inside the room,
seeing you everywhere yet nowhere in a daze.
I walk through the door in a rush,
Only to see you gone.
Like poets waiting for a subject with tears in their eyes,
I stand there silently, all tattered and torn.
Yours poetically,
v.s
Tried it all
Parents scared of my thoughts
Have a lot of lives
A past say; not exactly
At the end all come to a point
Wouldn't say talent or hidden either
A curse to me, didn't like the things.
Was not exactly a beginner
Never thought I had it in me
The freer the verse the deeper the cuts
Good for nothing; Yeah I was
Why care about people did they cry with you
Too much stress too little time
I want some, at least one to hear.
Like a programmed robot
I move through each day
Smiling and nodding
In just the right way.
Pretending I'm happy
And life is just great
When the truth of the matter is
There's just too much on my plate.
I feel like I got cheated
Out of living a good life
I'm poor and alone
And I'll never be anyone's wife.
I'm like that lone shoe
You see lying on the road
Alone and discarded
Like an unwanted load.
People pass by me
Staring with pity
Torn and tattered
Not an ounce of pretty.
The shadows in my eyes
Portray a battle lost
Nightmares and insomnia
Show surrender’s cost.
The physical scars
Have healed without a trace
But the mental emotions
Are still written in my face.
I'm a programmed robot
Struggling each day
Trying to hold my head up
And wishing I could fade away.
Time flies by slowly, steadily... it is like
there is nothing worth rushing for.
Yet every second feels suffocating,
every minute feels longer than the previous.
Waiting slowly kills the feeling
of everything that might, for an instant,
make the day brighter.
Counting the passing days one by one,
suddenly the way it used to be seems
extremely far, distant.
The angst is pulling at every nerve,
playing with every thought,
that perhaps all there was
is slowly going to fade away.
Yet a promise, a few words shortly said,
keep my heart surprisingly at ease.
My sanity strains to survive,
but what can I do,
when all I long for is
to hear your voice.
Sarah I never knew how much of an angel you was. until you grew your wings and flew too that beautiful bright star above our heads and if that start would give me one wish. I would wish for you to come back and fix our broken hearts..?? but as I sit here underneath the night sky and bright moon.. remembering all of the ambivalent times we shared. I swear it makes my heart bleed tears...... if I laugh or cry as a grandad I hope she hears.. that I'm still not happy about the time she died my hair or all the times her friends made me babysit for a year lol *** so thank you everyone for the mad or amazing times we all got too shair xx
I love you big sister
To let my heart at ease,
I let the squeaky wheel get the grease.
Two wheels held up the very same cart,
While I wore thin and slowly fell apart.
Told that caring wasn't your love's part,
You mastered to hit the heart with a dart.
The silences you gave me were so loud,
Guess I was just a dot in your crowd.
You used me, bruised me, left me unseen,
Too weak to ask what my wounds could mean.
Now cart is yours, so go your way,
No one is left to sway.
Cup runneth over; chalice of sorrow
Drowning in each sip I take,
Fighting for one last breath.
* 'The Numbers Game' Poetry Contest
* Sponsored by: Nette Onclaud
* Submitted/Written on: 9/5/2026
I always thought I’d break what’s true,
And somehow that fear just came true.
You gave me love, so pure, so real,
And I gave you wounds you didn’t deserve to feel.
You stayed with me, you held me tight,
While I kept pushing you out of sight.
Not because I didn’t love you enough,
But because loving right felt way too tough.
You thought I was ashamed of you,
But that was never, ever true.
It was my insecurities I tried to hide,
That slowly built this painful divide.
You gave your all, you gave your best,
While I failed in this love test.
You were my peace, my safest place,
Now I’m left with emptiness I can’t replace.
They say all endings turn out well,
But mine just feels like a living hell.
Because you gave me a heart so true,
And all I gave… was losing you.
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